ULSTER SFC QUARTER-FINAL/Down 1-15 Donegal 2-10: THE BOYS of summer are back in business. Or are they? Down can take plenty of encouragement from this match and enjoyed the superb range of Benny Coulter's gifts. But there is something worrying about the fact it took them a full 70 minutes to shake off a Donegal team who could teach Britney Spears a thing or two about the art of self-destruction.
For the crowd of 13,727, the match was undeniably nail-biting and it contained several excellent scores – mainly struck by the football boots of Down men and the bonus of extra-time compensated for the flabbergasting number of errors committed.
It was a cagey match, governed by both defences awareness of the key danger men on the field – Michael Murphy for Donegal and Coulter for the victors. Down had a clearer idea of what they wanted to do and had key defensive shows from Damian Rafferty and Declan Rooney.
Their most impressive period of play occurred just after Conal Dunne hit them with the body blow of a second goal, which came in the 18th minute.
Dunne collected the ball after Dermot Molloy cracked a shot off the post and had time to choose his spot and give Donegal a 2-1 to 0-3 lead. If the old charge of brittleness that has stalked Down in recent years was to resurface, it should have done so here.
But Martin Clarke flashed over a beautiful point and then Daniel Hughes, who landed four silky scores from play, added another and the game of cat-and-mouse resumed.
There was some higher justice at work that Coulter, who has endured seasons of endless disappointment in the red and black, should have cut loose to make the difference here. He troubled Karl Lacey in the air in the opening exchanges before settling down to a riveting dual with Neil McGee.
For too long he was a spectator and wandered to the midfield, which was like Grafton Street on Christmas Eve, wrestled some hard won ball and hoofed a terrific point from distance when Down needed it. He turns faster than an ice skater and although McGee coped as well as he could, Coulter shimmered with menace all day.
As fatigue made the game looser in extra-time, the threat of a goal from the Mayobridge man loomed and when Donegal coughed up possession in midfield – Neil Gallagher the guilty party – Down swept forward with customary efficiency and Coulter made the finish look both effortless and inevitable. That 85th-minute goal was the killer.
There was nothing new about Donegal here. For the second year in succession, they have been booted out of the Ulster championship on home turf. It took a last gasp score from Rory Kavanagh to carry them into extra-time.
By that stage, a substantial book of evidence had been compiled against them. Just three points scored in the first half and four in the second: they would have been left for dust but for the goals.
They fired some desperate wides and most criminally, they failed to use Michael Murphy.
The Glen Swilly man must be wondering as to what sort of decade lies ahead for him in Donegal colours. He won the possessions and supplied the passes for both Donegal’s goals and would have caused more trouble had his team-mates hit him with more ball.
It is true that he was double-teamed by the Down defence but that policy is nothing new. When Murphy moved outfield to get on the ball, he couldn’t buy a pass. All in all, his gifts were scandalously under-employed and his return of a single free must have delighted the Down statisticians.
Donegal had a few bravura performers. Michael Maguire and Barry Dunnion closed in on loose ball with the intensity of heat seeking missiles and drove their team forward. Kevin Cassidy was immense in the last third of the game and Dermot Molloy, making his championship debut at corner forward, hit 1-3.
Mark McHugh, another of the under-21 vintage, was full of clever touches and composure when he was sent in. But overall, Donegal indulged in their fatal habit of over-elaboration and needlessly complicating their game.
As James McCartan observed, this match will not have forced a midnight meeting at the war rooms in Tyrone. The visiting defensive lock was prised open at times – in his only mistake of the day, Donegal’s Barry Dunnion was clean through on goal but dropped the ball as a few seconds of glory bloomed before him.
The predatory streak that runs through the Tyrone attack will punish any such gaps in cover. But the most important thing was that Down got a win on the road. They kept chipping and chipping at the Donegal lead until they finally got to grips with the scoreboard in the 68th minute.
Clarke’s 50 could have ended the matter in normal time but Donegal cannot resist a lost cause and so manufactured a heroic equalising score only to go on and lose anyway.
DOWN: B McVeigh; B McArdle, J Colgan, D Rafferty; K McKernan, D Rooney, C Garvey; D Hughes (0-4), D Gordan; K King, M Poland (0-3, 2 frees); P McComiskey; B Coulter (1-4), J Clarke (0-1), M Clarke (0-3, one 50). Subs: C Maginn for J Clarke (47 mins), P Fitzpatrick for P McCumiskey (54 mins), D O’Hagan for K McKernan (63 mins), C Laverty for M Poland (79 mins), R Murtagh for C Garvey (85 mins).
DONEGAL: P Durcan; F McGlynn, N McGee, K Lacey; M Maguire, B Monaghan, B Dunnion; R Kavanagh (0-1), N Gallagher; D Walsh (0-1), C Toye, K Cassidy; D Molloy (1-3, 2 frees), M Murphy (0-1 free), C Dunne (1-0). Subs: A Hanlon (0-1) for Toye (43 mins), A Thompson for B Monaghan (53 mins), M McHugh (0-1) for N Gallagher (62 mins), C McFadden (0-1 free) for D Molloy (67 mins), N Gallagher for C Dunne (70 mins), P McGrath for F McGlynn (78 mins), E Wade (0-1) for M Maguire (82 mins).
Referee: Joe McQuillan
